spreadsheets
Posted by verna on October 08, 2001 8:16 AM
Hi
Can you please help. When i try to open my Excel it will not open straight onto the spreadsheet, which it normaly does. It has started to give me this message "Excel cannot open Access MBD files directly. To import Access data into Excel, use Get External Data Command in Excel, Point to Get External Data on the data menu, Click new database query, then create a query to retrieve the data, for information about creating a query, see help in Excel" When i click the OK button on the message box, it then brings the spread sheet in. I dont want to integrate Access data into Excel. Can you tell me what is going wrong and how can i get rid of this message every time i go into Excel please.I would like to add i have just upgraded my memory from 32mb to 128mb, i thought that this might have something to do with the problem, but it has not affected any other programs. Look forward to hearing from you soon, thank you.
Verna
Posted by Damon Ostrander on October 09, 2001 7:55 AM
Hi Verna,
I know of only two ways to get the error message your are getting:
1. You start Excel, then use File -> open to attempt to open an Access .mdb file as if it were an Excel file. This might happen if you got your Excel file mixed up with an Access file of the same or nearly the same name.
2. You have an Access file whose .mdb extension has been renamed to .xls so that the file is "posing" as an Excel file when it really isn't. When you double-click on this file, or try to open it from within Excel you should get the error message you are getting. To see if this is the case, change the extension back to .mdb and see if it opens in Access when you double-click on it (of course, this assumes that you have Access loaded on your computer).
In either case the file is an Access file, not an Excel file, so opening it in Excel is not an option.
A possible third option is that the file has gotten corrupted in such a way that Excel has become convinced it really is an Access file when it is not. I have never heard of this happening, but guess it could happen. If this is the case the only fix will be to go back to an earlier or backup version of the file.
I hope this helps.
Damon
